Ninja Theory says Hellblade hasn't gone back to the drawing board

Having seemingly claimed that it had scrapped much of its work on Hellblade and started over, developer Ninja Theory now insists that the game remains on track.

The studio earlier today took to Twitter to say: We are committed to the open development of Hellblade from first playable (vertical slice) to the last as the positives outweigh the risks.

It then added, in a now removed tweet: A vertical slice is a test bed of ideas, not part of the final game. It has been retired and we have started Hellblade production afresh.”

However, half an hour later it seemed to backtrack on the wording, particularly the use of afresh”.

Retiring a vertical slice and moving on into full production is good news,” it insisted. It is not starting again, it is moving forward as expected.” It then stated that the game is in the production phase.

Ninja Theory added to GameSpot that the game is absolutely” on track for a release before 2017 – meaning 2016.

Hellblade has garnered much attention for its brave attempt to tackle the subject of mental illness. However, despite the merits of its subject matter, the reception to early gameplay has been less enthused.